Once Upon a Mango Tree (Aam Gaachher Bashinda)

Indian Shorts

Sep 15

Synopsis

A mango tree threatens to fall on a family home, leaving a man torn between cutting it down or preserving it. As he hesitates, two human-faced birds from the beloved Bengali folktale Thakurmar Jhuli appear, carrying memories of his late father. A tender reckoning with childhood, home, memory, and change.

From the filmmaker

My own mother, before her passing, was obsessed with cutting down a large coconut tree behind our house - something she saw as an imminent threat during the cyclone season. The fear of a large tree falling on your house is a collective fear shared by all those who have a house in the canopy of one. So, in more ways than one, my mother’s fear also stands valid. I must admit that the fear has also been passed down to me.